Criticism of teaching methods

Due to the general nature of the approaches, their assumptions and principles are often not clear in the classroom. It is difficult for teachers to understand and use them. The methods lack clear practical application, require special training, and require major changes in teachers’ practices. The notion of methods received criticism in the 1990s for other reasons, and a number of limitations implicit in the notion of all-purpose methods were raised. Then, at the end of the 20th century, mainstream language teaching stopped considering methods as the key factors in ensuring the success of language learning.

There are at least five criticisms directed at the use of methods. First, it’s a top-down comment on the methods property. In practice, methods often prescribe teachers how to teach. Teachers have to faithfully accept the claims or theory underlying the methods and apply them to their own practice. Good teaching is considered as the correct use of the methods and their prescribed principles and techniques to be used in the classroom. So in this case the role of teachers is marginalized because their role is not just to understand the methods but to apply its principles correctly. Trainees are sometimes seen as the passive recipients of the methods and are only supposed to submit to their regimen of exercises and activities.

The methods are absent from a center of learning concept and teacher creativity without recognition that students bring different learning styles and preferences to the learning process, which must be consulted in the process of developing teaching programs, that the methods Teaching methods must be flexible and adaptable to the needs and interests of the students. There is often little room for personal initiative and the teaching style of teachers. Teachers must submit to the method.

Second, the methods are often misunderstood and promoted as all-purpose solutions to overcome teaching problems. The methods are believed to be applicable anywhere in the world and applicable under any circumstances. Teachers are sometimes unaware of the starting point in language program design, i.e. careful consideration of the context in which teaching and learning takes place, including the local cultural, political, institutional and local context. made up of teachers and students in their classrooms. .

Third is the need to develop a curriculum, although it takes time to find methods that can achieve the teaching objectives. The teaching method must be carefully examined, developed, tested in schools and the materials judged, and it must also be evaluated whether the objectives are achieved and, finally, it needs the feedback of all the experience gained, to provide a starting point for a study. later. The elements are considered to form a network of interacting systems. The choice of teaching method cannot be determined separately from other planning and implementation practices.

Fourth, the methods lack a research basis. The methods are often based on the assumption that the second language learning process is fully understood. Some methods are not written on the basis of research and researchers do not write books on methods or are written without being empirically tested. In fact, many books written by method gurus are full of claims and claims about people learning languages, few of which are based on second language acquisition research or empirically proven.

Fifth, is the similarity of the classroom practice. Some methods are different at first but then in the classroom they are practiced in a similar way. It is very difficult for teachers to use methods in a way that accurately reflects the underlying principles of the methods. Teachers use different methods implemented in class with different activities to contrast methods particularly those based on classroom activities, which do not exist in real practice. The methods are generally quite distinctive in the early stages of a language course and quite indistinguishable, for example, in a community language learning class, but in a matter of weeks they can resemble any other learner-centred curriculum.

Based on the discussion above, it is believed that teaching methods have played a central role in the development of language teaching. It will still be useful for teachers and students of pedagogy to become familiar with the main teaching methods proposed for teaching a second and foreign languages, but it should be studied with profit, mastered selectively and creatively, and it should be applicable to be able to

(1) learn how different approaches and methods are used and understood when they are useful,

(2) understand some of the issues and controversies that characterize the history of language teaching,

(3) engage in language learning experiences based on different methods as a basis for reflection and comparison

(4) being aware of the rich set of activity resources available to the imaginative teacher,

(5) appreciate how theory and practice can be linked from a variety of different perspectives. However, teachers need to be able to use approaches and methods flexibly and creatively based on their own judgment and experience.